he was a man, an intellect on the level of one of the greats like hagel or plato. >> that was abc's nick schifrin in rome. after benedict says good-bye to the church's cardinals, he flies by helicopter to the papal retreat. he will offer a blessing from the balcony and then shut the door. in his own words, benedict will be hidden for the rest of his life. >>> and it is a very busy morning in rome. and our friends at "gma" are planning complete coverage of this historic day. keep it right here on abc news. >>> our other major story, is massive budget cuts set to begin in less than 24 hour ps. after weeks of warnings, president obama softened his tone about the cuts. instead of a fiscal cliff, the president said it was more like a tumble downward. and he invited congressional leaders to the white house for talks. here's karen travers. >> reporter: the topic was probably unavoidable. today, president obama had a brief meeting, no more than ten minutes, with congressional leaders, about how to avoid the massive spending cuts. they'll sit down on friday at the white house. progress? not so mu